Hungarian PM: Migration is ’Poison’ for Europe

Local Editor

Right-wing Hungarian leader Victor Orban said refugees are less than welcome in Hungary, calling them "a poison" and "terror risk" at a joint press conference with his Austrian counterpart. He also rejected the migration policy the EU is trying to impose.

Orban, who is known as a harsh critic of the mandatory migrant quota scheme that the EU proposed in February, argued that there is no reason for Hungary to take in any migrants, as its economy and demography would be better off without them.

"Hungary does not need a single migrant for the economy to work, or the population to sustain itself, or for the country to have a future," he said, stressing, that, on the contrary, "every single migrant poses a public security and terror risk."

"This is why there is no need for a common European migration policy," he said, insisting that the right to decide migration issues should be reserved exclusively for national governments. Orban went on to say that "whoever needs migrants can take them, but don't force them on us, we don't need them."

As far as Hungary is concerned, "migration is not a solution but a problem... not medicine but a poison, we don't need it and won't swallow it," he argued.

Earlier this month, the Hungarian PM called a referendum on the mandatory quota system, which is to be held on October 2. Arguing that, if enacted, the reform would challenge Hungary's sovereignty in internal matters, Orban has urged Hungarians to reject the EU's proposal.

"We believe that only Hungarians, not Brussels, can decide who we want to live with in Hungary," he said when announcing the date for the vote.

Hungary and three other central European states that constitute the Visegrad Four group, which includes Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, have been opposing the mandatory quotas the EU wants to impose on each member state.

In December of last year, Hungary filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Justice to thwart the EU's attempt to redistribute incoming arrivals across the European Union, of which some 2,300 would be resettled in Hungary, if the EU gets its way.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team